June 04, 2012

Schiacciata all'Olio

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together the yeast and water. Stir to dissolve. Add the flour, salt and olive oil. Using the dough hook attachment, mix until it forms a smooth ball. Place in a oiled bowl. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise about 1 hour or until it doubles in bulk. Oil a standard jelly roll pan and spread the dough out on the pan, reaching all four sides and corners. Allow to rise 30 minutes. Lightly dimple the top of the dough using your fingertips. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with the additional salt. Preheat oven to 400. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool, then slice.

My thoughts:

I haven't made bread in while so when I was looking for inspiration for a new recipe to go with this week's Bravo's “Around the World in 80 Plates” which is going to be in Florence, Italy (June 6th 10/9c), I was to excited to see this bread on the menu of nearly every restaurant and bakery menu I came across. The dough is a snap to put together, very elastic to work with and for a homemade yeast bread, does not need a ton of rising time. It is truly a simple, delicious, classic Italian bread.

The finished product is very satisfying as a snack, for breakfast or along side a salad for dinner. Take care to use good quality, tasty olive oil for this bread though, it is what really gives it its flavor. Leftovers make wonderful bread for panini.

Fun fact: Focacceria Pugi opened in 1924 selling this bread and to this day "Pugi" is used as a synonym with schiacciata all'olio. So if you are in Italy and someone wants some Pugi, you know what they mean!

3 comments:

I'll ask here because I bet other people are wondering. Is this like focaccia? I googled schiacciata, but it seems to mean a lot of different things. Is it really crusty on top like focaccia? I'm trying to imagine what this is like. It looks beautiful and delicious, for sure. :)

It is pretty crusty on top. I'd say it is similar to focaccia (which is also an olive oil based yeast bread) but it is just a plain bread where focaccia is topped with other ingredients. It is also rather thin. Hope that helped!